Well, I guess many have already written an extensive review on the MacBook but I will be focusing mainly on the BootCamp element and Windows XP on the MacBook.
My Model acquired, Thursday:
MacBook 13.3" White/1.83GHz/1.25GB/80GB/Combo
MacBook vs iBook - Mac OS X Tiger
Performance and Power
Speed
Compared to the iBook this machine is, at least twice as fast in real life. Even when set to 'Better Battery Life', the machine smokes both my own 1.33 iBook and my friends 1.5GHz Powerbook at everything except Rosetta apps. Effects are rendered faster, the system feels much more responsive.
The hard disk also feels much more snappy, and is MUCH more quiet compared to the iBook's churring slow 4200rpm drive. Great work here!
Memory
Users with 512RAM will expect a performance hit with multiple applications open (ie more than 5), but until you really open too many apps the performance hit is managable. I should urge nobody to upgrade to 1GB+ unless they feel that they would like a better machine. Not everyone in real life requires the ultimate power of the Core Duo and 512MB is just fine for modest and controlled use of the MAC OS system with a few apps, including maybe Word and Entourage. I have 1.25GB configured at the moment in Single Channel - there is very little to no difference between Single/Dual configuration except if you are desperate for your GMA to muster a few more FPS in a game.
Graphics
Which brings me on to the mainly criticized addition - the GMA950. What do I think? Compared to the 9550 it replaces, it is NOT faster. Regardless of what benchmarks tell you, the bottleneck for the 9550 was NOT itself, but the mediocre memory (32MB) and processor (1.33-1.42 PowerPC G4). If this system had anything like a 9550 equivalent, it would perform much better in games. That said, the effects in Mac OS X are excellent and fast. Sometimes, one may notice a 'blur' when dragging widgets into the dashboard during the 'ripple' effect. I for one have noticed this personally.
Features
Airport and Bluetooth
Airport is much more sensitive at picking up weaker signals, Bluetooth is kinda the same as the iBook. Both seem to be sound configurations. Some users may need to uncheck the 'ignore sensitive movements' option in System Preferences for the trackpad which is causing it to be unresponsive from time to time - this fixes that problem. That said, SMS is fine, and scrolling works great.
iSight
Very welcome addition, works like a breeze, quality IS GOOD!! It captures video beautifully and vividly.
Screen
Very very very bright and crisp! It smokes the iBook in every way. The reflections are of very little notice. I wouldn't urge anyone to look down on the glossyness at all.
Battery
Reasonable, but not excellent. Under full energy saving (better battery life, lowest screen) and moderate use (gaming, internet, movie rendering, chatting with airport and bluetooth) the MacBook was able to muster around 3hours and 40 minutes. I should suspect this would improve to around 4hours with no gaming or rendering video, but do not expect much more than that really. To compare, the iBook got 4.5hours. That said, I am more than happy to trade 20minutes of battery for a more responsive system, where a 667MHz G4 felt dog slow.
Mooing and Whining - Heat Issues
The is a sound similar to the cow mooing although I would label this more of a 'grrrrrr' now and then. Yes it is the fans spinning up and down and yes I suspect this may be an issue with the Firmware, the mooing also happens in Windows XP but more so in gaming than during normal use, so I suspect it is more down to the heat generated by the GPU rather than the CPU - pretty disappointing when one considers its performance is worse than the 9550 which was almost silent.
The MacBook gets VERY hot - as hot as my iBook under full load for an hour and this is in normal use. Even under 'better battery life' it does get hot. How can one avoid this? You can't - the best thing to do is use it on a flat surface which will dissapate the heat much better. That way, the generated heat will not remain there and there will be less need for 'moos' and heat over the keyboard.
MacBook in Windows XP Professional SP2
This machine runs Windows XP like a rocket. I did a detailed battery life examination on the system to deduce whether Apple's claim that XP power management is poor:
20GB dedicated to Windows
Screen: On all the time lowest setting
Intel GMA950 max battery setting
Power Management: max battery setting
WiFi and Bluetooth: ON
From boot:
Office Productivity/Internet/Music/Chat 1hour15mins
Gaming:
- Fifa World Cup 02 (30mins)
- Command and Conquer Generals (45mins)
- Pinball/Hyperbowl/Labyrinth MS Games (30mins)
Movie Clips: 15mins
System maintenance while browsing net/music:
- Disk Defragmenter: 10mins
- Final activity 5mins
END: 3 hours 15 mins
Its good, I think one can get around 4hours+ without WiFi/BT Running. Apples claim about XPs power management doesnt quite explain the truth. Tips on making the most of your Windows XP battery life:
1. Make sure your Power Management is set to max battery. You can check that this is the case by checking your clockspeed which should show 988MHz, as well as making sure your system goes on standby/turns off displays etc.
2. Set the GMA950 to max battery in the GMA Control Panel Energy saving.
3. Use your computer on a flat surface to allow better dissipation of heat and hence less fan usage (which I didnt do, so may well earn you 5-10mins more).
4. Use the lowest possible volume output from the speakers that you have to saves your ears pain and your computer strain.
Issues with XP
Sound
The sound card drivers suck. You get underbuffering when any sound is emitted except if you are using the machine on full power. I suspect the power management settings need to be optimized to make sure they don't cripple the output of sound.
Also of concern is the absence of headphone cancelling. When you plug in headphones, the output from the speakers is not muted - you get both. Annoying to put it simply.
Trackpad
Feels different to OS X, scrolling doesn't work. You can't right click unless you download a program to program the use of the 'ctrl' key as you do in Mac OS X.
iSight Doesn't work - no drivers
Airport and Bluetooth - work very well like they do under Mac OS X!
Screen as bright, but function keys to control it don't work. Users will have to drag a slider up and down like to control sound. If you accidentally move the mouse away from the slider and the screen goes dark - RESTART!! Cos your in trouble!
Graphics While under OS X 64MB is utilized, Windows XP makes use of the GMA DVMT 3.0 which varies memory use from 16MB-128MB, so you can get upto 128MB of VRAM when needed.
Gaming is decent. The old titles like Quake 3, Fifa World Cup, Age of Empires 2 and CC Generals run well. So does Flight Simulator 2002. All of these games the GMA950 can muster 25+ FPS for (and mostly 30+ except at time in CC Generals), running on MEDIUM setting, and 1024/1280 resolution. I have not attempted to use other games, like Halo 2 but I should suspect one can expect between 15-20fps at least on these games - whether that is your piece of cake is up to you.
Any other queries, please do not hesisate to PM me.
Regards
My Model acquired, Thursday:
MacBook 13.3" White/1.83GHz/1.25GB/80GB/Combo
MacBook vs iBook - Mac OS X Tiger
Performance and Power
Speed
Compared to the iBook this machine is, at least twice as fast in real life. Even when set to 'Better Battery Life', the machine smokes both my own 1.33 iBook and my friends 1.5GHz Powerbook at everything except Rosetta apps. Effects are rendered faster, the system feels much more responsive.
The hard disk also feels much more snappy, and is MUCH more quiet compared to the iBook's churring slow 4200rpm drive. Great work here!
Memory
Users with 512RAM will expect a performance hit with multiple applications open (ie more than 5), but until you really open too many apps the performance hit is managable. I should urge nobody to upgrade to 1GB+ unless they feel that they would like a better machine. Not everyone in real life requires the ultimate power of the Core Duo and 512MB is just fine for modest and controlled use of the MAC OS system with a few apps, including maybe Word and Entourage. I have 1.25GB configured at the moment in Single Channel - there is very little to no difference between Single/Dual configuration except if you are desperate for your GMA to muster a few more FPS in a game.
Graphics
Which brings me on to the mainly criticized addition - the GMA950. What do I think? Compared to the 9550 it replaces, it is NOT faster. Regardless of what benchmarks tell you, the bottleneck for the 9550 was NOT itself, but the mediocre memory (32MB) and processor (1.33-1.42 PowerPC G4). If this system had anything like a 9550 equivalent, it would perform much better in games. That said, the effects in Mac OS X are excellent and fast. Sometimes, one may notice a 'blur' when dragging widgets into the dashboard during the 'ripple' effect. I for one have noticed this personally.
Features
Airport and Bluetooth
Airport is much more sensitive at picking up weaker signals, Bluetooth is kinda the same as the iBook. Both seem to be sound configurations. Some users may need to uncheck the 'ignore sensitive movements' option in System Preferences for the trackpad which is causing it to be unresponsive from time to time - this fixes that problem. That said, SMS is fine, and scrolling works great.
iSight
Very welcome addition, works like a breeze, quality IS GOOD!! It captures video beautifully and vividly.
Screen
Very very very bright and crisp! It smokes the iBook in every way. The reflections are of very little notice. I wouldn't urge anyone to look down on the glossyness at all.
Battery
Reasonable, but not excellent. Under full energy saving (better battery life, lowest screen) and moderate use (gaming, internet, movie rendering, chatting with airport and bluetooth) the MacBook was able to muster around 3hours and 40 minutes. I should suspect this would improve to around 4hours with no gaming or rendering video, but do not expect much more than that really. To compare, the iBook got 4.5hours. That said, I am more than happy to trade 20minutes of battery for a more responsive system, where a 667MHz G4 felt dog slow.
Mooing and Whining - Heat Issues
The is a sound similar to the cow mooing although I would label this more of a 'grrrrrr' now and then. Yes it is the fans spinning up and down and yes I suspect this may be an issue with the Firmware, the mooing also happens in Windows XP but more so in gaming than during normal use, so I suspect it is more down to the heat generated by the GPU rather than the CPU - pretty disappointing when one considers its performance is worse than the 9550 which was almost silent.
The MacBook gets VERY hot - as hot as my iBook under full load for an hour and this is in normal use. Even under 'better battery life' it does get hot. How can one avoid this? You can't - the best thing to do is use it on a flat surface which will dissapate the heat much better. That way, the generated heat will not remain there and there will be less need for 'moos' and heat over the keyboard.
MacBook in Windows XP Professional SP2
This machine runs Windows XP like a rocket. I did a detailed battery life examination on the system to deduce whether Apple's claim that XP power management is poor:
20GB dedicated to Windows
Screen: On all the time lowest setting
Intel GMA950 max battery setting
Power Management: max battery setting
WiFi and Bluetooth: ON
From boot:
Office Productivity/Internet/Music/Chat 1hour15mins
Gaming:
- Fifa World Cup 02 (30mins)
- Command and Conquer Generals (45mins)
- Pinball/Hyperbowl/Labyrinth MS Games (30mins)
Movie Clips: 15mins
System maintenance while browsing net/music:
- Disk Defragmenter: 10mins
- Final activity 5mins
END: 3 hours 15 mins
Its good, I think one can get around 4hours+ without WiFi/BT Running. Apples claim about XPs power management doesnt quite explain the truth. Tips on making the most of your Windows XP battery life:
1. Make sure your Power Management is set to max battery. You can check that this is the case by checking your clockspeed which should show 988MHz, as well as making sure your system goes on standby/turns off displays etc.
2. Set the GMA950 to max battery in the GMA Control Panel Energy saving.
3. Use your computer on a flat surface to allow better dissipation of heat and hence less fan usage (which I didnt do, so may well earn you 5-10mins more).
4. Use the lowest possible volume output from the speakers that you have to saves your ears pain and your computer strain.
Issues with XP
Sound
The sound card drivers suck. You get underbuffering when any sound is emitted except if you are using the machine on full power. I suspect the power management settings need to be optimized to make sure they don't cripple the output of sound.
Also of concern is the absence of headphone cancelling. When you plug in headphones, the output from the speakers is not muted - you get both. Annoying to put it simply.
Trackpad
Feels different to OS X, scrolling doesn't work. You can't right click unless you download a program to program the use of the 'ctrl' key as you do in Mac OS X.
iSight Doesn't work - no drivers
Airport and Bluetooth - work very well like they do under Mac OS X!
Screen as bright, but function keys to control it don't work. Users will have to drag a slider up and down like to control sound. If you accidentally move the mouse away from the slider and the screen goes dark - RESTART!! Cos your in trouble!
Graphics While under OS X 64MB is utilized, Windows XP makes use of the GMA DVMT 3.0 which varies memory use from 16MB-128MB, so you can get upto 128MB of VRAM when needed.
Gaming is decent. The old titles like Quake 3, Fifa World Cup, Age of Empires 2 and CC Generals run well. So does Flight Simulator 2002. All of these games the GMA950 can muster 25+ FPS for (and mostly 30+ except at time in CC Generals), running on MEDIUM setting, and 1024/1280 resolution. I have not attempted to use other games, like Halo 2 but I should suspect one can expect between 15-20fps at least on these games - whether that is your piece of cake is up to you.
Any other queries, please do not hesisate to PM me.
Regards
